Shugborough, an 18th-century estate of 900 acres in Staffordshire, England, advertised for an ornamental hermit in the summer of 2002 and received over 200 applications from around the world. The winner, Ansuman Biswas of London, spent a weekend in the cave of the premises, and was on display as an ornamental hermit at select times for visitors. The press release contains details. The custom of maintaining a hermit to amuse or frighten guests of estates was not uncommon in the eighteenth century England, and presumably it garnered a little tourist traffic for the shire and the Museum which sponsored the Hermit Project as part of its Heritage Week events. Press release at: http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/live/welcome.asp?id=1673. Enter “hermit” in the search box to get to the specific page.
Anchorites, Wombs and Tombs
A scholarly conference entitled Anchorites, Wombs and Tombs, on medieval anchorites and the social and gender context of enclosure in medieval Britain was held July 5-7, 2002 at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Topics included Ancrene Wisse, linguistics, mysticism, hagiography, and gender issues. Web site for proceedings is: http://www.aber.ac.uk/english/conferences/wtprog.htm.
Guthlac, Medieval Hermit
Little is known about St. Guthlac except a standard hagiography. He lived in late seventh-early eighth century England, and is held as a model of saintly eremitism in later English resources. A compact narrative and bibliography on Guthlac and his sister Pega is assembled at Umilta, an Italian Web site in (occasionally broken) English devoted to a handful of English and Italian saints. The design is lacking but the information is unique on the Web. The Guthlac page is: http://www.umilta.net/guthlac.html.